A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c15.28

c15.28

Turning to the Kākatīya, perhaps the ruler with most claim to greatness was that Ganapati whom Jaitugi had released from prison and set on the throne. In his long reign of over sixty years (1199-1262) he earned the reputation of being a good administrator. In the Andhra country, the power of the Velanānti Chodas had disappeared after 1186, and its distracted political condition was an invitation to a ruler like Ganapati to enter and exploit its fertile lands, its iron and diamond mines and its ports. This conquest he completed between 1209 and 1214 and made the Telugu-Chodas of Nellore acknowledge his suzerainty. Their wars with Kulottunga III, after their capture of Kānchi, involved him, as we have seen, in hostilities with that monarch also. He also fought against Ananga Bhima III (1211-38) of Kalinga, who was hard pressed by his Muslim enemies from the north and by the Chedi rulers of Tummana, and in another indecisive war about 1231 with the Yādava Singhana. More decisive was his defeat (1239) of the Kāyasthas in Cuddapah and Kurnool, represented by Gangaya Sāhini and his nephews Tripurāntaka and Ambadeva. Soon after this, Ganapati proclaimed his daughter Rudrāmbā heir-apparent, even calling her by the masculine name Rudradeva Mahārāja, and associated her actively in the administration. He also issued a charter of security to foreign merchants trading in Mōtupalli. Jaṭāvarman Sundara Pāndya's aggressive wars, that brought him into conflict with the Telugu-Chodas and their suzerain Ganapati, have been narrated already. When Sundara Pāndya withdrew, Ganapati, at the instance of the poet Tikkana, assisted Manuma Siddhi, the son of Choda Tikka, against his domestic enemies and seated him firmly on the Nellore throne. Even that turbulent Kādava chieftain Kōpperunjinga acknowledged Ganapati's overlordship.